It was a great opportunity to talk to some of the instructors who were economic geologists. They invited me down to Durban where the university is located so I can take a look around and maybe even do a master's there if I end up getting really into this gold mining stuff, so that was pretty cool. It was even cooler talking to the students about their class, about Durban, and about South Africa in general. It was amazing how similar the dynamic of this class was to my geology class at St. Andrews. And just like some of our field trips, there were always a few people who you could tell were getting a bit tired of looking at rocks all day (been there!). The unbridled enthusiasm of the lecturer balanced against the general weariness and indifference of the class was all to familiar. Geology can be fun though!
I took them down to the same areas I described before, and I recognised most of the people that were working filling the hand-spun, home made mills and hammering away at the rocks. A lot of the people in the geology class spoke the Zulu language, and they got to talking to the artisanal miners, even getting a chance to spin one of the mills. The workers at Kortnek are nice, extremely hard-working people who are out there in the middle of nowhere scratching out a living selling tiny amounts of gold for cheap.
In a similar situation, the illegal miners making their homes underground in the Klipwal gold mine are now facing some trouble. Lloyd is still here and has gone underground again in search of more of these rogue miners. I'm not sure how dangerous or violent they are as people, in fact they probably aren't at all. The problem is that they are armed with hand-held drills and explosives and are using them without any discretion underground. Mines are carefully constructed with pillars and supports in ways that prevent the possibility of cave-ins and serious rock failures. When the illegal miners drill explosive charges in any gold-rich areas they can find, they are potentially destroying the structural integrity of the mine. This makes it dangerous for all of the Klipwal employees, hence Lloyd going down with his small militia to hunt them out.
Now it's a shame that you have these illegal miners who are fighting just to make a living being taken out and essentially thrown into jail. It's just even more damaging to leave them down there to wreak havoc on themselves, the mine, and its employees. It's not pretty, but what Lloyd is doing is just another step in getting the Klipwal mine into production again. There is always a chance that these illegals could be employed by the mine at a later time, but when they are caught with explosives, as they were last night, apparently there are looking at least a few years in jail.
Of course the root of this problem is held by the upper class black market dealers operating in South Africa. The gold being produced by the illegal miners is purchased and an often extremely low price and then sold on at the market price for HUGE profits. It's a sad but true blemish on the South African mining industry.
Now on a lighter note, I am going to join the geology class for a big braai-up and get to know a few people so I have somewhere to stay when I visit Durban!
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